A heavy body slumped into her, waking Cerise. The back of Mykhal's head slid off her shoulder and landed in her lap.
Her Triage skill activated without her conscious decision. "Dehydration and mana soreness. Water and rest," came back to her.
She dug out her water bag and trickled the last drops into his mouth. He grinned up at her, his lids heavy and sleep already tugging him under.
"What's your class?" She asked, but he was already unconscious.
So Cerise tried out her upgraded Basic Identify. She wasn't sure what differed between that and Appraise, but maybe she could see class names?
Mykhal of Trall Mining Village, class type [Scout], grade Rare, rank Novice. Commoner, Freeman.
Appraise advances to Practiced-0.
Cerise wanted to see what the difference between a Beginner-9 and Practiced-0 skill was so she re-Appraised her friend.
Name: Mykhal of Trall Mining Village
Class: [Scout], Rare, Novice
Strata: Commoner, Freeman
Conditions: Dehydrated, Mana Soreness, Exhausted
Health: Low, Full
That looked like an abbreviated profile. She got the sense that her Triage skill was synergizing with her Appraise skill to provide the conditions and Mykhal's health rank and state. The attributes on one's profile varied by the classes one possessed, but almost everyone had Health.
Her own Health Pool was ranked Low now, too, up from Poor from before she gained her class. Somehow, Vitality played into the rating of one's Health Pool, but Vitality was a hidden attribute, only referenced by skills and condition warnings. At least, as far as Cerise knew.
Cerise now had a Stamina and Mana Pool, and a Focus rating. All her Pools were rated Low, and her Focus Moderate. Attributes could be rated from Horrible to Excellent, with most humans rarely exceeding a rating of High. There were rumors about higher ratings, but those belonged to mythic beings like ancient dragons -- not to be confused with the bestial Drakes that settled in high mana zones -- places few humans ventured.
A giggle of amusement made Cerise look around. Her mother had a teasing grin on her face, and her father was smirking.
"That boy!" Her mother laughed at the confused look Cerise turned to her.
"Yeah?" Cerise asked, not understanding what was funny about Mykhal passing out. Without the reassurance of her skills, Cerise would've been quite upset and worried by now.
Her father shook his head, his smirk growing, even as her mother fell into peels of laughter.
"What?" Cerise asked.
Her father said, "You'll understand when you want to. We'll let Mykhal rest for a bit before we rouse him to go home."
"Okay," Cerise said, and relaxed back against the rocky entrance, dozing off once more.
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The sun hadn't moved that much when Mykhal's movements roused Cerise. She poked him to get him to stop drooling on her pants leg. He stretched like a cat, and caught her by the waist when his arms relaxed, rolling to bury his face in her belly.
"Hey, now! None of that!" Her father barked, prompting Mykhal to poke his head up and groggily look around.
His face went from slumber pale to dark embarrassment as he realized just how he and Cerise were now entangled.
Cerise did not understand why he flung himself away from her, clapping his hands over his eyes and mumbling apologies. It was a funny reaction so she laughed, but a part of her wondered if she was somehow revolting to him. She didn't really think so. They were friends after all, but there also weren't a lot of children to be friends with in their village.
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While there were about two hundred adults on the village rolls, only a little over fifty of them were women. Not all were mothers, and those who did have children were often the younger women, or the much older women whose children were all grown or dead. There were four others gaining their first class this year, and three of them would have their day after Cerise and Mykhal.
And thinking of that, Cerise started packing up. She shared out some of her travel loaves to tide them over till they got home. There would be a stream along the way were they could refill their water bags.
As she packed up, her parents started, too, and Mykhal calmed down enough to join them.
"So what class did you get?" Her father asked.
"[Arcane Hunter Novice]," Mykhal said. "It's a [Scout] type, but with some crossover to the [Warrior] types. I've got Might and Endurance attributes, and a Mana and Stamina Pool. I had some skills combine, too, so now I have Forage, Track, and Camouflage. I'm only at level 2, so for class skills I picked up Land Stride and Navigation. Land Stride uses Stamina to let me move through underbrush without slowing down and Navigation has a passive where I always know were a fixed landmark is from where ever I am. I have to concentrate to change where, but it has an active where I can use mana to find the path from where I am to where I want to be.
"Now, I just need to make myself a bow or a crossbow! I'll get the Bow skill and that should open up some of the Magic Shot skills!"
They chatted happily for the half-hour or so it took to reach the stream, and they paused there to drink their fill and let the water settle before heading off for the next half of their hike.
Mykhal abruptly shut up when they were ten minutes from the palisade walls. Even as Cerise asked, "What is it?" she began to smell the smoke.
The wind was blowing at an angle, between them and the village, and they were in the foothills of the Sartalg Mountains. Sounds traveled oddly in the hills, and the village was situated so that its sounds did not reach the grotto of ascension.
It was enough to calm their chatter and instill a bit of worry, but not yet a cause for alarm. Still, they quickened their steps until they grew close enough to see the smoke through the trees.
Cerise was yanked back, not even realizing that she'd started to run.
"Stop!" Mykhal ordered, making the whole family freeze. "There could be bandits about or a goblin raid! You are not going to help anyone if you get yourself killed by not thinking! Do you hear me?"
This Mykhal was a more forceful presence than Cerise was used to, but he made sense. She nodded. "I hear you. So, we sneak up close, see what the situation is. Monsters or bandits, we regroup and figure something out. Otherwise, we go in and look for how to help?"
Mykhal nodded, and then turned to Cerise's parents. "Do you have any Stealth skills?"
Cerise's mother nodded. "Basic, Beginner, but yes."
"Basic, Practiced," her father said.
Mykhal looked to Cerise. "I got up to Practiced yesterday," she said. "You?"
"Camouflage took it and set me to Practiced," he said, rolling his eyes.
Cerise bumped him with her shoulder. "Be that way," she teased over the roiling of her gut.
They slipped into the woods, away from the cobbled path, and approached the village. There were dead bodies -- dead human bodies -- beside the palisade, but three men Cerise recognized were moving about, poking the bodies with spears before leaning in to slash their throats. She almost moved up to them before she really looked beyond the corpse-state of the dead bodies to see their faces, faces she also recognized.
One of the spearman was a [Miner], one of the corpses Mykhal's father.
Horror and nerves made her ears ring and her belly knot up. She looked around, but she could not spot Mykhal or her parents. Then her hearing cleared some, and she heard the [Miners] talking.
"How long before the cyr's men get here, do you think?" The first spearman, Abel?, asked.
The man holding the dagger was Abel's brother, but she couldn't remember his name. Something with a growly sound. "How the Abyss should I know?" The brother said. "Depends if anyone got word out. All we have to do is get the ore out and over to the draycons. They'll claim this mountain right fast for Drakeblood ore and that bastard of a noble will burn. I can't believe anyone here was loyal to that little dung heap of a mobby waving cows backside!"
The third man spat to the side, poked another corpse, and used the blade of his spear to slice the corpse's throat.
They moved along, and Cerise crept closer to the corpses. She activated her Triage skill, saddened, but not surprised, that she could do nothing to heal the dead men.
She slipped back into the woods and headed to the last place she saw her parents. She was almost there when familiar hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into Mykhal's chest.
"I'm so sorry!" Cerise said, turning to hug him.
His only response was to hug her closer.
Cerise's parents ghosted next to them a few moments later.
Her father said, "Either we try for the cyr's estate to warn him of what's happened, or we run."
Her mother waved her hand and said, "No-no-no-no-no! We're running! Did you not hear them? They found Drakeblood ore! No matter what happens now, the cyr has lost this land, and if we're the ones to tell him, he'll put all our heads on a pike!"
"He's our liege, Bergin!" Her father protested.
"And we are not serfs! We are Freeman, but if the cyr gets his hands on us now, we're dead men! I'm. Not. Risking. Cerise!"
Her father glanced her way, and his expression shifted, then firmed. "Well, it won't be the first time we have had to start with nothing. Where should we go, my love?"
"Not to the draycons! I've always had a hankering to see the sea, and I do like the taste of fish."
Mykhal said, "The last caravan through, there was talk of a new dungeon found in the Velton Hirselland. That's toward the coast, they said."
"What's your Navigation skills say is the way?" Cerise's mother asked.
Mykhal's gaze grew distant for a moment, then he said, "That way," and pointed down to the road caravaneers used to haul away the cyr's ore loads.
Her father's lips twisted and twitched, but he just said, "Let's be off."